Manufacture of paper felting



the same.

PATENT OFFICE.

FRANK J. MATHER, OF MORRISTOWJEL NEW JERSEY.

. MANUFACTURE OF PAPER FELTING.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 278,350, datedApplication filed March 19, 1883. (Specimens) To all whom it mayconcern:

qBe it known that I, FRANK J. MATHER, of Morristown, New Jersey,acitizen of the United States, have invented a new and useful Im- 1provement in the Manufacture of Paper Felting; and I dohereby declarethat the following is a full, clear, andexact description of theinvention, whiehwill enable others skilled in the art to which Thenature of my invention consists in the use of spent bark and woolen,cotton, or equivalent fibrous wastes in the place of the more expensivematerials and ingredients hereto- 1 5 fore used in the manufacture ofpaper felting. I For use as roofing-felt and for carpet-lining greatereconomy and efficiency are secured.

The advantages of my said invention are:

securing a flexible, elastic, tenacious, attract- 1 ive, moth-proofmateriahfor the above uses,

with greater economy and satisfaction than has heretofore beenpracticable.

I have discovered that spent bark, especially of the oak or pine, isfibrous and tough 2 5 as well as elastic, and, combined with cheap softwastes and other materials herein described, makes a felting whichsomewhat resembles cocoa matting, and can be made of greater thicknessand of greater flexibility and elas- 0 ticity than has been heretoforeknown.

To carry my invention into effect I use the I following materials, insubstantially the following proportions: from twenty per cent. (20%) 1to twenty-five per cent. (%)-preferably the T 5 formerof spent bark,preferably of oak or pine; twenty per cent. (20%) totwentyfive per cent.(25%) of cheap woolen, cotton, or other fibrous waste, preferablytwenty-five per cent. (25%); fifteen per cent. (15%) of straw,(preaoferably bleached,) or of coarse meadow-hay,

and the balance in what is known as colors, in some cases substituting,asustock may require, ten per cent. (10%) of satinets for an equalamount of colors to secure greater strength. I may vary the proportionsabove of which many are well known, and the other materials are beaten,with the bark so disintegrated in the beating-engine, .toa pulp suitableto pass over the dryers of a cylinder-machine, and be turned off androlled up as a paper felting. The methods and conditions it appertainsto make and use spentbark is sorted, sifted, and some May 29, 1883.

of doing this are well known to anyone ordinarily familiar with suchmanufactures.

I I may use ,bark, though more expensively, before the same has becomespent. What I lay most stress'on is the use of, preferably, spent barkand the woolen or cotton or other cheap wastes-the bark as giving bodyand strength, color, and moth-proof quality, and the waste materialswoolen, cotton, &c.as giving peculiarsoftness and flexibility, all beingespecial- 1y economical. I utilize materials heretofore wastes, andrelease better stock for other purposes in greater economy. The spentbark produces a rich color, and by the use of a little lime-say onebucketful to about four hundrcd pounds of stock-this color is lheighten'ed to a rich brown. sired color by the use of any propercoloring materials therefor.

I am aware of numerous American patents and English, providing fortheuse of bark and of spent bark; but in'every case some special expensivetreatment of the same is required-dish]tegrating, washing, bleaching. Inno case can all the bark be used. The parts rejected.

The facts have made the use of spent bark heretofore unprofitable. Inall preceding uses, also, the product is for astiff, hard, inflexiblematerial, such as boards for trunks, papiermache, &c. My invention ;isthe first, so far as I know, which secures by the use of tan a soft,flexible material, and which utilizes spent bark in its entirety withoutwaste or expen- *satinets, substantially as described.

I may produce any de- *3. A soft, flexible paper felt suitable forcarpet-lining, roofing-felt, and similar uses, composed of spenttan-bark, soft fibrous waste,' hay or straw, and colors and satinets,substantially as above set forth. I I

' FRANK J. MATHER.

Witnesses JOSEPH O. Boo'rH, 0. N. SAGE.

